Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden ...

Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden Circle

The delegates were welcomed by Bob Mackenzie of Benchmark for Business. Andy Lothian of Insights introduced the first speaker, Steve Radcliffe. Leadership is about inspiration, the internal spirit and how to inspire others. He urged the audience to consider their purpose here today and what they wanted to get from the event. Steve's simple and clear approach to the question of leadership was introduced as `less is more'. In his presentation Steve showed how working with people's energies and engagement can build leadership skills. But it works best if you are up to something that engages your passions and vision for the future.

Steve Radcliffe ?Leadership Plain and Simple Steve recalled his last stay at the hotel. On that occasion he had been chatting to the Chief Executive of First Direct only to discover later that at the same time a murder was taking place upstairs. So, he felt, the important thing to consider is what else might be going on in the Landmark Hotel. He began by asking people to look inside themselves and discover what gives you energy and what takes it away. Also consider how you want to be at the end of the session and concentrate on the quality of your thinking. Becoming the best you can be does not come from looking sideways at others. Only 38% think that their organization is well led and 66% believe leadership to be a rare quality. But, it is essential to shake off the idea that leadership is only at the top. To do this people need to believe that they can make a difference and to see that as a natural human activity. Leadership can sit anywhere and it should be nurtured at all levels. Consider how good you are at developing others as good quality leaders. Noel Tichy: "Winning orgs win because they have good leaders nurturing the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization" Leadership skills can be seen as complicated in reality they are quite simple and can be reduced to three ideas: Future, Engage and Deliver. This means imagining the future and having a tangible and clear about it. We might dress it up as a `mission' but really it's a simple picture. The next step is to interact with others and get them to come with you. It is about getting away from the telling mode and on to engagement. Delivery is about travelling with people to the imagined future. But, we limit ourselves in these three areas and there are few leaders who are really good at all three parts Here are two ideas on the approach

1st idea - From operator, to manager and to leader This is a big challenge. You probably started your career as a doer, an operator. You got good at this and so came to manage other operators. Because you exceled at this your bosses wanted you to step up again and become a leader. But this is tricky because you can get two messages. One is to lead and the other is to attend to the hundreds of tasks you are expected

Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden Circle

to complete. The tasks can feel a lot safer and much more familiar because this is where you feel competent, so how do you make the transition to leader complete? The audience were asked to discuss in pairs how they see this challenge and to think about when and how they move between the three modes:

"There can be a skill gap and this forces you back to the operations mode ? getting past the resource scarcity is a challenge."

Steve suggested that thinking there is no way out can trap you. As a leader you need to start in the future but imagining it can be hard if you feel trapped by the present. Making it authentic - Someone described "the bungee jump moment" when you literally have to let go of your former role, trust in who you are and be yourself.

Steve reinforced this perspective and said that if you want to be good in the leader mode think about what you are like in operator and manger modes. How clear are you about who you are and what you do? "I move naturally toward the leader mode but I'm not sure my organization values this".

Steve: It is essential to find a good home at work and an environment that is both nurturing and liberating. This contributes to generating a sense of who you are and who you could be and how you can create and shape that environment. People fail to lead because the present day stuff gets in the way drawing us into operating mode.

2nd idea - Be up to something One common feature among capable leaders is that they are all up to something. It's a dream, an ambition, something in the future that they want to create. What they want in the future is strongly connected to what they care about so, you need to make sure you are up to something. The foundation question issue here is `what do you care about and what is important to you?' People were asked to discuss this in pairs. Many described the conversation as liberating and felt that they were connecting at a deep level while at the same time acknowledging the need to tread carefully in this sensitive area. Steve stressed the significance of this conversation by quoting the phrase "How can I know what I'm thinking until I've heard what I've said". A Harvard Business Review showed successful leaders to be purposeful, trust in their own judgement and to adopt long term big picture views. It is about breaking out of the perceived boxes to fulfil personal goals that tally with those of the organization as a whole. This is the place to start with what matters to you. The audience where then asked to talk about what they are up to at work and what would make it even better. They should think of the conference as a safe place where they can imagine and fly. Here of some of their thoughts: "I feel passionate about it, I now want to get back and do it." "I put barriers in the way of what I should be doing". "Life is about what you create, think about how to positively discriminate to create and preserve the time to do it."

The conversation here is about the extent to which people are living their lives centred on what they care about. What you care about builds your foundation as a leader.

Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden Circle

Self-imposed limitations There are three ways in which people commonly limit their potential to achieve leadership in this way: 1. Drowning yourself in the future 2. People achieving far less than they want to because they cannot see how to do it. People tangle what they want to achieve with the `how' thus causing the strength of their ambition to drop. This means you will stop soaring as an eagle because you can only see life as a sparrow 3. Limiting our belief, what are those thoughts that hold you back from imagining the future you can have? Wondering whether you are worth it and if you can do it.

Steve Radcliffe part 2 ? Managing the energies

Harnessing your energies Think of yourself as contagious and famous and having an impact on all those around you. Drucker states that "Your first and foremost job as a leader is to manage your own energy and help manage the energy of those around you". Four energies (1)Intellectual energy ? logic, agreement, caution, analysis. (2)Emotional energy ? human relationships. (3)Energy of the spirit ? linked to inspire and aspire and from the Latin "spiro"; to breathe life into something. This is strongly connected to your sense of the future and where possibility and optimism sit. (4)The three above do not get anything done so the 4th is physical energy, action, doing, vitality, focus and stamina.

These four provide a useful lens for looking at your organization and where you place, or could place your energy. The audience were asked to view their organizations through an energy lens:

"I was completely opposed to what my company does, I have a very spirited approach but my company is much more physical and intellectual."

Steve spoke of an engineering firm with a big focus on action during their global meeting. But an evening awards session brought out the spiritual and emotional in the same people. All four are always there but what emerges when and why?

"Everything starts with the physical, if that's not there the others can't follow"

"We use all four most of the time. Some in a conscious state and others less so. But when under pressure I usually go to `intellectual' to protect myself but it's not where I prefer to be"

Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden Circle

Steve goes to intellectual with a "let me be right" approach when clients are unwilling to engage in the emotional. Energies provide an angle on who you are and what you are bringing. As a facilitator you note the energy and work with it to change it if necessary. This calls for fluency in handling energies as a leadership skill.

Going back to the three modes of operator, manager and leader the first is dominated by the `physical'. Managers are dominated by the `intellectual' followed by `physical', `emotional' and `spiritual'. For Leaders `spiritual' comes first, followed by `emotional' then `intellectual' and `physical'. This makes for a big jump between manager and leader in shifting `spiritual' from fourth to first. Tichy finds that "the most effective competitors... will be the orgs that learn how to harness the emotional energies of employees".

Energies play on how and why people engage. Viewing the world as a series of human interactions the audience were asked to think about 4 or 5 key people at work that they would like to have engaged in future focused activity and consider where they are on the engagement scale below.

Vision Mission Strategy Approach Plan

Future

Engagement levels

Committed ? continuous engagement and ownership of the idea ? wanting to take it on

Enrolled ? I'm engaged but only up to a point

Willing compliance ? a good org but not a great one

Grudging compliance ? the tooth suckers, that's not a good idea but if that's what you want we'll do it.

Apathy Resistance ? can be robust opposition

Audience contributions: Using joining a gym, as an analogy, helps us with understanding the difference between

enrolled and committed. `Enrolled' could be intellectual energy but committed is about the spirit. Connecting energy with engagement some organizations talk about engagement on a purely intellectual level. This discussion takes us into the spiritual idea of how people engage rather than thinking about engagement as simply a numbers issue. Reflecting on the point that all the energies are there and the question of how many are brought to your work. I gave a coaching client the challenge of becoming a people person at work. His colleagues can't believe the transformation it has made in the way he is at work. Making `safety' the common cause in an aluminium company connected people across a spiritual theme.

Simon Sinek and Steve Radcliffe Leadership and the Golden Circle

This takes us on to the contribution of relationships to energy and engagement. "Power in organizations is the capacity generated by relationships. It is a real energy that can only come into existence through relationships, ever since that conversation I have changed what I pay attention to". (Margaret Wheatley)

This means having relationships that are big enough to get the job done and it requires driving the relationships and the task at the same time. Think about what is going on in the relationships within the room. There will be a plan but the relationships in the room may not be big enough to bring it off. Arrive with the intention to engage and build relationships as a conscious practice. But, make sure you manage your shadow. In other words what impact do you have on the energy in the place? If you are casting a shadow inviting people to tell you about it is worthwhile.

Deliver "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision is merely passing time. Vision with Action can change the world" Mandela In working out how engagement and spirit are brought to the task it is useful to decide whether you are inviting people to carve a stone or build a cathedral. Robust dialogue though is an essential component both in acknowledging progress and in challenging performance. Also, consider how good you are at developing others as leaders.

Questions and contributions I experienced an unintended consequence of my shadow. As an extrovert leader of an

organization I got everyone together for a brain storming session but did not get good results. I really tried to engage people but on reflection I realised that I needed to enable people to engage differently as brainstorms aren't for everyone. Instead, by giving people time to reflect I reduced the size of my shadow.

I like the model of energy and jump from manger to leader but how would it work in a modern organization such as Google?

Steve: I don't have an answer but I'll make one up. The four energies are there and spirit may be needed in abundance. Intellectual plus spirit energy can make it work. It's really about being conscious of what is needed rather than having a right answer.

There is a barrier between the enrolment and commitment. How can it be addressed?

Steve: Make a request for action as this generally flushes out where they are. Develop the leadership muscle of making big requests.

Summary from Steve (1)Be up to something. (2)Put in the conscious practice. Practice rather than complex leadership ideas is what will make the difference

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